Vardos & Romany Caravans

by Ross McCabe of Under the Thatch

The Vardo, commonly known by the non-travelling community as a gypsy caravan, has been in use in Britain since the mid 19th century. The finest of these caravans were built in England between the 1870's and 1920's, in which time they developed their distinct characteristics that also inspired the sedentary nation to use this mode of transport for their own recreational use.

Although there were a few varieties of vardo they all shared certain distinctive qualities. They were all one-roomed homes that were extravagantly decorated on the interior and exterior, in most cases the main entrance and steps were situated at the front of the wagon and they also had four wheels (two large at the back and two small at the front) set out from the cabin that made crossing fords and pulling off-road far easier.

All vardos were fitted with a chimney, which was connected to a small stove and had a rack and pan box at the rear. The interior itself had a set plan of design that maximised its use of space very efficiently. Typically there was one bed and plenty of storage space for the families' belongings. The vardo was small but was able to carry a family of travellers and their possessions quite easily. What's more the whole lot was light enough to be pulled by a single horse.

From the 1870's onwards vardos were common on the British landscape. At this point there are five main design types. The Reading, The Brush, The Burton, The Ledge and The Bow Top. The sixth type, The Open Lot, was a descendant of a four-wheeled pot cart and didn't arrive until the 1930's. All individually built, these different types varied very little in the basic design and function of a vardo but did vary in terms of customer requirements, price, skill, location of construction and the time period they were made. In this sense no two vardos are the same.

Even though the vardo displayed Romanesque characteristics and baroque style carvings that were no doubt acquired on travels through central Europe, the vardo is likely to have originated in France at the turn of the 19th century. At this time on the British Isles the most common way of travelling was by boat and as a result Britain had the worst roads in Europe. Until Britain's roadways were redeveloped by the likes of Telford and McAdam, they were so poor that it used to take six strong horses to pull a stagecoach along them. Clearly the very nature of the transport infrastructure prevented the use (and therefore the construction) of the lightweight vardo in Britain. Conversely, France had 15,000 miles of the finest roads in Europe by as early as 1760 and so supported the creation and use of these early wagons.

Until the vardo was introduced to Britain, travellers used the two-wheeled tilted wagon to carry their possessions in, the family themselves then slept in a tent. By the 1840's the earliest four-wheeled wagons began to be created in Britain, but they were by no means commonplace or stylised. These wagons firstly became popular with a community of travellers known as showmen. These people originally used to sell produce at fairs, but since the development of the shop, focused their efforts on entertainment. There was a strong need for the showmen to have a vehicle that could travel from place to place quickly and easily so that they could secure the best places from which they could trade.

Though highly suspicious of each other, members of the Romany community also travelled with the showmen as they shared similar economic interests. During the latter half of the 19th century Britain was such a prosperous nation that many travelling folk were better off than many people living in other countries and so were then able to afford to purchase these new wagons. Although true Romany gypsies were strongly against living a comfortable life the population eventually embraced these caravans as they made living and travelling more practical.

The identity of the travelling people is most strongly manifested in the vardo and even though the rest of the world labels it a gypsy caravan, true Romany travellers were just one social group who used these wagons to travel in and you were just as likely to see other people such as showmen using them. However a vardo is not simply a vehicle. The travelling community prefer to see it as a home on wheels. They are not travelling from place to place looking for somewhere to live, rather they have their home with them always and are changing their scenery regularly, a benefit that sedentary dwellers rarely get to experience.

See our own vardo, a 1924 Bow-top by clicking here.